Man­dela brand rakes in mil­lions

Nel­son Man­dela’s close friend Ad­vo­cate Ge­orge Bi­zos once de­clared that the for­mer states­man was not a mil­lion­aire, but his brand had the power to rake in mil­lions.

With dozens of trusts, his name and his prison num­ber reg­is­tered as trade­marks, Man­dela’s es­tate was worth R46 mil­lion when he died two years ago. This con­sisted mainly of roy­al­ties from his books, his fa­mous hand im­prints and the 46664 brand, which in­cluded a cloth­ing range, footwear and ac­ces­sories.

Ac­cord­ing to the Nel­son Man­dela Foun­da­tion’s an­nual re­port, it had a net in­come of more than R32 mil­lion and as­sets of more than R308 mil­lion last year alone. Ex­clud­ing book and art sales and the 46664 brand, this came from a di­verse col­lec­tion of donors from other foun­da­tions, banks and a mul­ti­tude of com­pa­nies and pri­vate in­di­vid­u­als.

From 1995, the Madiba name has also brought in an es­ti­mated R1.2 bil­lion for the Nel­son Man­dela Chil­dren’s Fund. This ex­cludes the chil­dren’s hos­pi­tal be­ing built in Johannesburg which, it is es­ti­mated, will cost about R1 bil­lion. To date R620 mil­lion has been raised and con­struc­tion is half­way.

But the foun­da­tion is not the only en­tity earn­ing money from Madiba magic. Man­dela’s fam­ily are also cap­i­tal­is­ing on his brand.

There was Be­ing Man­dela, a re­al­ity TV show with Man­dela’s grand­daugh­ters Swati Dlamini and Zaziwe Dlamini-Man­away. They also have a cloth­ing line called LWTF – Long Walk To Free­dom.

Ac­cord­ing to com­pany records, his eldest daugh­ter, Makaziwe, has more than 30 com­pa­nies she is ac­tive in, some of them named af­ter her fa­ther.

FANCY FOOTWEAR The 46664 takkies bear Nel­son Man­dela’s fa­mous hand im­print and his Robben Is­land pris­oner num­ber. Most of the prof­its from the sales of the fash­ion la­bel go into the Nel­son Man­dela Foun­da­tion’s char­i­ties and so­cial-jus­tice projects